1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an optoelectronic system of assistance in aerial attack and navigation missions This system is designed to be carried by an aircraft, a helicopter or a remote-controlled missile.
To fulfil his mission, the pilot of an aircraft needs the following (by day or night or under poor weather conditions):
knowledge of the forward landscape (for the piloting function);
the precise spatial localization of observable elements of the landscape as initial points for firing control or as targets (for the attack/reconnaissance function).
It is thus possible to distinguish several types of carriers according t their ability to fulfil each of these tasks by means of the optoelectronic systems that they contain.
2. Description of the Related Art
In most carriers in prior technology, the optoelectronic equipment is rudimentary or even non-existent. Certain carriers have a wide-field infrared imager that is assigned chiefly to the piloting function, but can provide only limited assistance for the navigation and attack functions (as it does not give precise knowledge of the aircraft-target distance). Others have only one telemeter that enables them to appreciate this distance but cannot be used to do fine aiming by night or under poor weather conditions.
A limited number of carriers assigned to sophisticated missions have, for their part, complex systems generally contained in two pods by way of payload:
an element called a "navigation" element including at least one wide-field imager specially adapted to the piloting function;
an element called an "attack" element comprising a small-field imager coupled to a laser telemeter in an aiming direction that is variable in all directions of space, specifically oriented towards missions of attack by guided weapons.
The assemblies, by their association, make it possible to have all the data needed for the mission, but their cost and bulk justify their use only for very specific missions entailing the use of laser guided weaponry or missiles with imaging.